TM Director shares views on Spain’s property sector

In an interview with the popular Spanish property portal Idealista, the property developer TM Real Estate Group has revealed that two thirds of its sales are currently being made off-plan. The statistic shows just how far Spain’s property sector has come over the last couple of years, and reflects the strength of the foreign market.

Mr José Peral the Commercial Director of TM, which sells holiday homes on the Spanish coasts and islands, says the company has seen a major shift since the years of crisis when many foreigners would not accept buying off-plan with Peral stating that the German market was particularly reluctant to make purchases by this means.

An evolving sector

Mr Peral believes that the return to popularity of buying off-plan is due to the professionalisation of the Spanish property sector which has occurred since the boom. “Companies now take a lot of care designing their product and fulfill all legal requirements which means that the client can place their trust in them.”

Peral says that the construction quality has also improved immensely since the boom years: “The sector has had to reinvent itself and create strong selling points which has led to a huge improvement in the quality of construction, many developments now come with heated swimming pools and gyms etc.”

He also comments on the increasing importance of energy efficiency in the Spanish construction sector and says that many clients are becoming more demanding in regards to the energy performance of properties. This is apparently particularly true for Scandinavian buyers who regard energy efficiency as an important aspect of a property.

TM going strong

TM Group has not allowed itself to become weighed down with high levels of stock and Peral says that the company currently has around 500 properties on its books and that they will expect to sell this number of properties over the next 12 to 14 months. So far this year, the company has sold around 120 properties, 15% more than by the same date last year.

As the market recovers, TM has been raising the price of its properties due to the increasing demand and higher volume of new-build property sales particularly on the Costa Blanca South where the company has a strong presence. The price increases so far have been minor but the company expects that prices will continue to rise citing high demand and lack of quality product.

Key markets

TM’s buyers come mainly from Scandinavia, Spain and the UK with the company reporting rising demand from Germans and Belgians. A market they are keeping an eye on and which is apparently developing rapidly is the Chinese market which has posted increasing sales over every one of the last few quarters.

The rise in Chinese interest has been reported by other outlets too and the Spanish newspaper La Verdad recently ran an article on increasing numbers of Chinese buyers in Alicante province. The paper wrote that, according to a report by Tinsa, the Chinese market in Alicante grew by 63% in 2014 to 243 buyers.

Link to the original interview: http://www.idealista.com/news/inmobiliario/vivienda/2015/06/04/737469-tm-grupo-inmobiliario-dos-tercios-de-las-viviendas-en-la-playa-que-vendemos-ya-son